Plot to kill Indonesian President foiled

Jakarta, May 14: Indonesian police could crack a plot to kill the President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and other top officials.

Indonesia has the world's largest Muslim population. The attackers had planned a Mumbai-type attack to finally declare the country an Islamic state.

They had plotted to assassinate the President during the Independence Day ceremony on Aug 17, in the presence of nation's all the top officials, informed Bambang Hendarso Danuri, the Police Chief General.

The attackers also wanted to take over hotels and kill foreigners, especially Americans.

The plot was foiled during the investigations, during which some suspects were arrested from the training camp in the western province of Aceh. The police had conducted raids on a terrorist training camp in Aceh, since Feb 2009.

The information about the training plot came from a sequel of raids done over the week on the militant hideouts around the capital. They arrested around 20 people who were suspected to have trained at the terrorist camp where as five others got killed.

These militants were run by the terrorist group called al Qaeda in Aceh. The group is a splinter of Jemaah Islamiah, a Southeast Asian terrorist group.

"They were confident that all state officials and dignitaries would be there," Danuri said. "Killing all the state officials would have accelerated the transition from a democracy to a state controlled by Islamic Shariah law," added Danuri.

"If we had not detected them and their military training had been successful, then they would have assassinated foreigners ... as well as police and military posts in Aceh," Danuri explained.